Using Pork On A Menu Of Transit Alternatives

June 16, 1998|By TOM CONDON; Courant Columnist

It happened again. Last Thursday, a crowd of people tried to get into downtown Hartford in the middle of the day to hear Colin Powell, Elizabeth Dole, Henry Kissinger and other luminaries talk about success.

And once again, traffic was gridlocked. Hence, many of the almost 14,000 people who bought tickets had no success getting there on time. (I thought organizers anticipated this by having hoop-hyper Dick Vitale as the first speaker, but friends say Vitale was dynamite.)

The same thing happened when we hosted the NCAA basketball tournament in March.

Perhaps there's help on the way. The city recently got a $33 million federal grant for what was advertised as a North Meadows parking garage and monorail or people mover that would take people downtown.

Some immediately criticized the monorail as being ``like Disney World.'' So what? If this city had the transportation system Disney World has, we wouldn't be talking about this.

As it turns out, there doesn't have to be a monorail. Mayor Mike Peters worked with Sen. Chris Dodd on this. In the last-minute madhouse to whack up the money, they needed a plan of some kind. ``People mover and parking garage,'' Peters said.

Having gotten the money, Peters isn't required to build a monorail, just to use it for something that will get people in and out of downtown.

``But, this is pork,'' a TV reporter said to Peters when the grant was announced. Of course it's pork. The $200 billion federal spending program, called the Transportation Entitlement Act of the 21st Century, is one of the great pork barrels of all time. Vast amounts of this money will be wasted on needless projects.

But because this vast Niagara of cash was available, Peters did what any sensible mayor would have done, and grabbed some of it. Pork or not, it still spends, and it's at least theoretically possible to spend it wisely.

That will be the challenge. Peters' instinct is sound. A satellite parking and shuttle downtown is a way to alleviate the crunch. Whether it's the best way remains to be seen.

The Capitol Region Council of Governments is developing a transportation plan and will ``fast- track'' it, said Executive Director Rick Porth, in honor of Peters' actually getting his hands on the money.

There's a big opportunity here. The state Department of Transportation is studying the east-west corridor, having determined that I-84 will be jam- packed at rush hour in the early 21st century. The council of governments also is studying the east-west roads. Downtown planners are looking at a better pedestrian environment, more parking, better signs.

What if we thought big? What if we planned transportation corridors into the city based on light rail or busways, or the river? I wonder if the city wouldn't be wise to take down some of the highways.

If we're ever to have any kind of transit, we also have to be willing to use it. People in Fairfield County are used to taking the train, and consider it a great resource. In Hartford, too many people support mass transit for others, so they can drive.

So as officials plan some kind of system, they need to do an education program, explaining why it's a good idea to use it. Then maybe we'd have less stress, cleaner air and events in midday that people could get to.